Following Fabio Capello’s resignation as England manager as a result of him actually possessing a thing called “principles” the clamour is now for Harry Redknapp to take over the job.

“Come on Harry! Your Country needs you!”

Is this the same country that yesterday had him in the dock on tax evasion charges? The same country that has dragged his name through the mud over the last four or five years as they sought to destroy his reputation by making out that he has been “cheating the public purse”? The same country that spent something in the region of £8million on a case over possibly tens of thousands of pounds in possibly unpaid tax suggesting that it was more vindictiveness rather than a desire to see the books balanced.

At almost 65 years of age, the rather less demanding England job might seem like a dream last job for Harry Redknapp and he has never ruled himself out down the years when he has been the manager of the lesser clubs only to be rebuffed as the FA preferred more glamorous foreign managers.

Now, after years and years of English failure, Harry Redknapp is suddenly the most wanted man for the job. Now that he is the manager of a “big club” and doing exceptionally well there with Champions League football once again beckoning for Tottenham next season.

The “problem” with Harry Redknapp is that he has always struck me as a thoroughly decent bloke. The kind of bloke who might fall out with people from time to time but cannot hold a grudge for too long.

He left Portsmouth in fairly acrimonious circumstances after a fall-out with Milan Mandaric but yesterday the two men were said to have hugged each other as the Not Guilty verdict was announced – I suggest that this tells its own story as to the kind of person Harry Redknapp is.

After what he has been put through over the last few years, he may not be in the mood to “serve his country” right now but, given time, he may well let bygones be bygones and be tempted to go for the job as this offer (and one will surely be forthcoming) could well be his last – he isn’t getting any younger.

I’d love to see Harry Redknapp installed as the English manager – I would have loved to see him given the job ten years ago – he is definitely the man to get our severely under-performing national team performing in a way that would make us proud of them once again but I would also love to see him stick two fingers up at the FA and stay at Tottenham.

He’s too good for England.

Like most people, I’ve been following the case of John Terry with some interest and have often thought of writing an article on the subject but thought it best to stay out of such a controversial issue and stick to talking about Manchester United matches.

In any case, I have no allegiance or otherwise with John Terry. I couldn’t care less if he will captain England at Euro 2012 or even if he stays at home and watches it on telly. What goes on in John Terry’s head could not mean less to me. If he harbours any prejudices towards certain groups of people then that is something for him to reconcile as far as I’m concerned.

Of course, if it was found that John Terry is indeed guilty of using a racist slur towards Anton Ferdinand then he should not only be stripped of the captaincy but he should never again wear the English shirt. Despite what white English people might like to believe, England is, and always has been, a hugely multi-cultural little island.

The term Anglo-Saxon comes from the Angles and the Saxons who were basically Germanic tribes which invaded England after the Romans (Italians). Then the Scandinavian Vikings had their wicked way with us as they raped, pillaged and looted our fair isle for a couple of hundred years before William and his French-speaking pals came over and shot poor Harold in the eye and so it went on.

So, to be “English” is and always has been to be of an enormously multi-cultural heritage.

However, racial stereotypes of what it is to be “English” aside, one thing that we “English” do possess is a sense of fair play – something which is recognised by our legal system which  is based on the presumption of innocence (or, “innocent until proven guilty”).

And this is where I actually became offended by the FA’s actions last week.

As the John Terry case is now a legal matter, he is legally bound not to speak on the matter until the court case so he is not in a position to defend himself at this time even if it must be tempting to do so. By stripping him of the captaincy before his guilt or otherwise has been ascertained, the FA have acted in a way which, to my mind, attacks a fundamental tenet of English society.

The question, therefore, should not be “Should John Terry represent England?” but “Should the English FA represent England?”

While I’m here, I may as well give my take on the whole John Terry situation for anyone interested in reading it.

I have seen the video of when John Terry was deemed to have committed his “crime” and it would require an expert lip-reader to fully determine what he said because you can’t actually hear what he says, you can only see his lips move.

However, a smiling John Terry is seen to be trying to attract Anton Ferdinand’s attention…

“Anton!…. Anton!!…. Anton!”, he cries several times whilst smiling all the while. Clearly John Terry has a really funny joke he wants to share with Anton Ferdinand and he’s not going to rest until he has Anton’s attention. Anton is off camera but I presume he had his back to Terry and was walking away but he must have heard Terry’s calling and so turned round to see what comical gem he has in store for him.

At which point John Terry allegedly utters the molten nuggets of comedic gold, “You black cunt!”.

Now. I am not saying that John Terry is the sharpest knife in the drawer but he has never really struck me as a complete numpty so I think you have to consider the context of the situation here.

He is playing in a high profile Premier League match. He is playing for a high profile Premier League team. Indeed, he is the Captain and “Mr Chelsea”. He is also, at this stage, the England Captain.

The ground is full of tens of thousands of supporters. There are twenty one other players on the pitch, ten of which are his own teammates, some of whom are also “black”. There is also a referee and his assistants in fairly close proximity. And there is that most damning of all witnesses: the TV camera… lots of them.

At this point, I can only come to three conclusions.

1) John Terry genuinely believed that calling a black person a “black cunt” was in some way humorous and that Anton Ferdinand was certain to see the funny side and laugh along with him. For this to be the case then Terry would have to so totally out of touch that it is inconceivable and is clearly absurd. It would mean, however, that Terry, whilst clearly a racist, is at least an honest racist who does not take his cues from the societal pressures and is content with his prejudices.

2) John Terry didn’t actually care what Anton thought of his “joke” and just thought that he’d get away with it – that no one else would hear him and that it wouldn’t be picked up by any cameras or microphones.

This explanation is almost as absurd as the first and if either of these are true then I would suggest that with Terry now 31 years old and having been playing at the top level for over a decade then it would surely have manifested itself before now if either was the case and such an outspoken and forthright racist would surely never have been considered for the England Captaincy in the first place?

3) John Terry didn’t actually call Anton Ferdinand a “black cunt” at all. He did, in fact, say what he said he said shortly afterwards and that was “you blind cunt”.

I have to say that both words fit his lips quite easily to my admittedly amateur lip-reading abilities but, as an Englishman (who believes in fair play, presumption of innocence etc) I simply have to believe that this last explanation is the true explanation – until it is proven otherwise.

Having said all this, I do believe that John Terry could have done himself a lot of good by, not admitting guilt, but accepting that the situation had compromised the FA and Fabio Capello and offering to relinquish the Captain’s armband of his own accord.

Incidentally, just as a thought, isn’t International Football (or any International sporting competition for that matter) inherently racist?

Whilst there is actually no clear definition of “racism”, it is generally understood and accepted to be the belief that one race is superior or inferior to another.

When Euro 2012 kicks off, isn’t that exactly what we are seeking to establish? The lines will be drawn, the tribes will be out in force, the English will hate the Germans, the Germans will hate the Dutch and the French will be hated by everybody (including themselves) all over again and all, ostensibly, in the name of “bringing us together through football”.

Just saying…

This game will be remembered for the stunning comeback from 3-0 by United but the biggest question on everyone’s lips was, “How the hell did we find ourselves 3-0 down in the first place?”

There wasn’t much to get too over-excited about in the first half. Welbeck appeared to be tripped for a possible penalty but replays showed that the challenge occurred outside the box and, from the referee’s angle, it could have even looked like the Chelsea player got the ball (I actually think Welbeck had nicked it away and it should have been a free-kick just outside the box).

Chelsea huffed and puffed but created little until a loose ball was picked up by Daniel Sturridge and, facing up to Evra, he tricked his way past and blasted the ball into the box. De Gea stuck out a leg and diverted it away from goal only to see it ricochet off Jonny Evans and into the net to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead they scarcely deserved.

At half-time, I had no doubts that we could score the necessary two goals to win this match and with the players out nice and early, it looked like they meant to get straight down to business and take the game to Chelsea from the off.

However, the second half got off to the worst possible start for us as Torres (who remains dodgy in front of goal) delivered a sublime cross straight onto Mata’s boot who volleyed it home spectacularly after less than thirty seconds of the restart.

At this stage, the hill we had to climb suddenly looked like a mountain if we were to get three points from this one but Chelsea weren’t done and a free kick which David Luiz headed towards goal was diverted wickedly off Ferdinand’s shoulder and past the wrong-footed De Gea to make it 3-0 with just five minutes of the second half gone.

As United fans, we are used to seeing comebacks from our team but 3-0 down at Stamford Bridge… well, I would like to know when a team last achieved this but it certainly isn’t in my memory banks.

We were thrown a lifeline less than ten minutes later though when Evra was tripped clumsily in the box for a penalty which Rooney put away with aplomb.

At this stage, Chelsea had received a warning and you’d expect them to shut up shop but, bizarrely, they continued to play an attacking game which made the rest of the second half a very open game and we were given yet another penalty some ten minutes after the first which Rooney again put away with ease.

To be fair, this one looked like a clear penalty at first glance but replays showed that Welbeck “bought it” but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures and I’m sure a certain Mr Drogba would have been proud of the way Welbeck just left his leg in and went over.

So, at 3-2 it was certainly game back on and there was, by this stage, a certain inevitability about what would happen next. Our tails were up and we were doing to Chelsea what I expected us to do from the start and it fell for Ryan Giggs to show every ounce of his mature years to keep a cool head and deliver a perfect cross into the box which Javier Hernandez headed home for 3-3 with at least five minutes plus added time to be played.

Could we pull off the comeback to top all comebacks?

Well, unfortunately, not this time and to be fair, Chelsea had a couple of decent efforts of their own in the closing minutes which required De Gea to pull off a couple of very good saves especially the one from Mata’s perfect free kick which was heading right into the top corner before De Gea used every inch of his six foot four frame and every bit of his agility to paw away at the last moment.

So, all in all, the players deserve every praise for not letting their heads drop at 3-0 and anyone who questioned whether or not we have the stomach for the fight at this stage of the season got their answer in emphatic style but there does remain a sense of bewilderment as to how we found ourselves 3-0 down in the first place.

For all the comeback heroics, this still feels like two points dropped as, just as with Liverpool in the FA Cup, I think we were the better team but we didn’t get the result we truly deserved.

However, quite apart from the fighting spirit on display, there were several other positives to take from this:-

De Gea’s performance: He still looks a bit dodgy on crosses and such but he showed that he is one hell of a shot-stopper. There was nothing he could do about any of Chelsea’s goals but he certainly prevented a couple of almost certain goals that a lesser keeper would have been picking out of his net.

Rooney’s penalties: Rooney has missed a few of late but showed remarkable courage to take not one but two penalties in this one and not only did he take them but he scored them convincingly with seemingly no sign of nerves or self-doubt. Petr Cech had no chance with either.

Carrick awesome (again): Michael Carrick has been back to his very best in recent matches and was once again instrumental in midfield without ever appearing to do anything particularly spectacular.

Valencia awesome too (again): I must admit that with Nani having such a great season last year and with our signing of Young in the summer who then went on to have a great pre-season and start to the season for us, I feared that Valencia could get edged out for much of this season but he has really shown his fighting spirit to rise to the challenge and I suspect that even if Fergie had a fully fit trio of Nani, Valencia and Young, Valencia would be his first choice right now.

He runs tirelessly, he gets forward, he tracks back, he always gives his full-back a nightmare and whilst his service has always been good, he’s now starting to add a decent shot to his repertoire. Arguably the best United player of the season so far for my money.

If there was something to moan about here then it was the fact that we had to rely on the penalty spot to get two of the goals (as we did against Stoke) and Hernandez’ goal aside, we didn’t really carve open any clear-cut chances. This was the problem against Liverpool the other week where, for all our possession, we ended up losing and it is a worry.

Rooney was deservedly man of the match here and put away his penalty kicks brilliantly but I think we’d all like to see him banging in a few more from open play now that he’s back from his little injury lay-off.

Stamford Bridge
Sun, Feb 5th 2012 Kick Off: 16:00

In my preview of the season, I had Chelsea down to finish second in the Premier League. I felt that we would win it but Chelsea’s experience would see them finish above City again and that they would take us right down to the final game or two.

However, Chelsea have been a shadow of their former selves for much of this season and currently sit in fourth and a massive twelve points behind us. With City winning yesterday, that makes them fifteen points off the top spot and at this stage, they will do well to overtake Spurs for third as they trail them by some seven points.

What appears to have happened over recent seasons is that Abramovich has tightened the purse strings and all those top notch players they bought for hundreds of millions a few years ago are now reaching the autumn of their careers but they haven’t been replaced with anywhere near the same quality.

When the cash has been splashed, it hasn’t always worked out and perhaps the most spectacular example of this is the case of Fernando Torres. A few years ago, I had him and Drogba as the best two strikers in the league but since the 2010 World Cup, Torres has gone from being recognised as one of the best strikers on the planet to a an embarrassing £50million flop.

The reverse fixture this season at Old Trafford will be remembered as much for Torres’ miss as much as anything else.

There. Now I’ve set Torres up to bang in a hat-trick against us this afternoon.

I think what the game against them at OT proved though was that, on their day, Chelsea are still capable of fantastic football and whilst we ran out 3-1 winners on the day, we rode our luck on several occasions and the score could have been anything you like up to and including 8-8.

As per usual, we stagger into this game with a hospital ward full of casualties and therefore it is difficult to say who will start although there has been some encouraging news on Cleverly and Young.

Valencia has been on fire of late and so I expect him to resume on the right but if Nani has not shaken off the injury that kept him out of our last game then perhaps Young will make a reappearance on the left but I believe Nani is fit and so Fergie might just opt to keep Young on the bench for this one.

I would also expect to see Rooney come back from his own injury for this one but Fergie has a dilemma as to who will play up front alongside him unless he ducks the issue completely and goes for a five-man midfield.

Chelsea have their own selection problems, especially in defence, as I believe Terry is injured and Ashley Cole is suspended meaning that new signing Gary Cahill could well make his debut in what will be a pretty untested and therefore vulnerable back four.

One thing that did surprise me about the Manager’s press conference was the fact that we have not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the league for ten years but I do believe that if there was ever a good time to put that particular stat to rest then now is that time.

Stamford Bridge used to be a fortress and any visiting team knew that if they came back with a point, they’d had a good game but that aura of invincibility is now fading and Chelsea have already lost three of their eleven home games this season (Villa, Liverpool and Arsenal) and, Manchester City aside, the teams they have beaten there have all been teams they would usually be expected to beat.

I believe that we have to win this afternoon. It is perhaps a game which City and Spurs will be hoping to see us drop points in and a draw would be an excellent result for those two teams. However, if we can take the points then we go back on top alongside City with another tough fixture behind us.

Rather than get too fancy with the betting, I think that the price on the straight United win represents good value and that’s what I will be going for this afternoon.

The bet is 2 points United to Win @ 2.75 with Coral.

Old Trafford
Tue, Jan 31st 2012 Kick Off: 20:00

Well, today is transfer deadline day and, as I type, I am watching Sky Sports News desperately trying to turn what has been a pretty boring transfer window into something exciting… “News just in! Joe Bloggs has signed for the Dog & Duck for a fee reported to be around two pints of lager and a packet of crisps”…

For our part, it appears that we have said goodbye to a couple of players (Mame Biram Diouf and Ravel Morrison) and although there have been murmurs of a couple of relatively unknown players coming in, there’s nothing to get too excited about as a Manchester United fan on the transfer front.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with the most important thing about today and that is the visit of Stoke this evening.

Stoke are enjoying another solid season in the Premier League but I suspect their current eighth place is as high as they will get this season. Their away form has been a bit hit and miss so far but a 0-0 at Anfield a couple of weeks ago was a decent result for them but generally, when they have played the better teams away they have been beaten by comfortable margins (3-0 against City, 3-1 against Arsenal).

Our home record, whilst not as good as last season, is still the third best in the league and we have beaten Stoke on the three occasions that we have faced them here in the Premier League although the 2-1 victory in our last game against them just over twelve months ago was the closest of them all which probably illustrates the progress Stoke have made over the last few years.

As usual, the main problem we seem to have is on the injury front and I have not been able to establish whether Rooney and/or Nani will be back for this one although Rooney does look the more likely of the two to appear this evening. After being an unused sub in our FA Cup match against Liverpool, Ferdinand also looks like he could come back into the centre of defence and if that is the case then I think I would like to see him partner Smalling who just looks generally better in the air than Evans.

In fact, this could be a key factor for us in this match as the reports are also that Lindegaard has suffered some kind of injury and so De Gea might continue in goal. Now, De Gea is a United player and I want him to succeed here and become a legend like Schmeichel and Van Der Sar but right now, I’m afraid that I have to watch him with my fingers over my eyes every time our opponents fling the ball in from dead-ball situations… and that is exactly what Stoke like to do the most and if De Gea is in net then it will only encourage them, I feel.

However, I still believe we will win here tonight but I wouldn’t go crazy for the 1.33(ish) price the bookies are offering for an outright win for us and I do believe that this could be a close scoreline, especially if it is correct that Nani and Rooney won’t feature.

The key to the bet on this one is whether or not we can keep a clean sheet, I feel. A 2-0 win for us would not be out of the question but I would like to see exactly what the defence is looking like before going for something like that.

At this moment in time, I am generally of the view that both teams will score this evening and that is going to be the bet because I think it offers value on what I see as a 50/50 toss of a coin type situation.

The bet is 2 points Both Teams to Score @ 2.1 with Bet365.

I think you could tell from my pre-match post that I had a feeling that something like this would happen here, however, I would just like to clear up my clumsy choice of words when I said “if it goes wrong then it wont be viewed with enormous disappointment.”

Of course, getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool at Anfield is almost as bad as it gets and it was enormously disappointing that this is exactly what happened but with the injury list we were carrying into this game I just felt that even Fergie had to accept that it would be a big ask to expect a win… hope, yes… expectation, not really.

As it turned out, we put up a tremendous fight and it has to be said that we were enormously unlucky to come out as the losers here. The stats I have in front of me say that we had 62% of the possession which sounds about right. For long spells of this game, our midfield was passing the ball around whilst Liverpool were chasing shadows.

However, we didn’t actually do a great deal with the possession whereas Liverpool were much more direct when on the ball.

Scholes gave his usual masterclass in midfield seeing a lot of the ball, exhibiting a pass-completion rate which must have been in the high nineties but a lot of it was sideways and backwards. It’s the type of thing I would love to see us pull off when we’re winning a game with five minutes to play but we were never in the lead in this match and I just felt that we could have been a bit more aggressive on the ball.

It did seem as though Scholes was always the “out” for any player with the ball. Scholes always finds space, the other player sees him and gives him the ball and it just pings backwards and forwards like this. In the meantime, Liverpool were able to get themselves set in position with their two banks of four behind the ball and seemed almost happy with this situation because we were rarely threatening their goal (we actually only had two attempts on target throughout the whole game although Valencia struck a terrific drive which came off the post in the first half).

As a result of all this, there was the impression that both of Liverpool’s goals “came against the run of play” but for me, they just did more in possession than we did and basically showed that you don’t get points for pretty possession, it’s all about sticking the ball in the net more times than your opponents.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. There were lots of positives to take from the game. Rafael was mostly excellent today and it was his tenacity and superb ball in which led to Park’s perfectly struck goal. Valencia continues to impress although he didn’t get a great deal of success in terms of getting in behind the Liverpool full-backs today and he was marshalled well but was unlucky not to get his name on the scoresheet again.

On the downside, De Gea still cuts a worrying figure in goal. He looks like his confidence is shot to pieces at times and he was probably culpable for Liverpool’s first goal as he became more interested in Andy Carroll than the ball and knew next to nothing about it as it flew over his head into the goal. One or two other nervy moments didn’t inspire confidence either and it has to be said, again, that Lindegaard’s claim for the Number One shirt only seems to strengthen every time De Gea plays.

At the end of the day though, we’re out of the FA Cup (again) and whilst the headlines last weekend were saying Manchester 2 – 0 London, this week they are saying Liverpool 2 – 0 Manchester and King Kenny now looks set to end Liverpool’s six year trophy drought.

As for us, we finally seemed to come through a game without adding to the injury list and a few of the injured will surely now be in a position to return against Stoke tomorrow.

Anfield
Sat, Jan 28th 2012 Kick Off: 12:45

Apologies for the lateness of this post but I have been hearing all kinds of things all week about who is not going to be fit to play this afternoon and I wanted to leave it as late as possible to see if there was any kind of clarification.

At various stages of the week, I had heard that Jones, Carrick, Nani and then yesterday Rooney were all struggling for fitness following the Arsenal game.

Obviously, Jones looked a major doubt but Nani also hobbled off in the Arsenal game and Rooney appeared unable to even walk at the end after a series of clattering challenges.

Anyway, I am no wiser this morning and I do wonder if Fergie is going to take a bit of a gamble in this game and rest those players who might not be 100% fit so that they might be ready for the league games.

The Premier League is clearly our priority this season and with Stoke and then Chelsea coming hot on the heels of this one, we have two stern tests ahead of us in that competition and I am now of the view that Fergie will put out a team which he believes will push Liverpool here today but if it goes wrong then it won’t be viewed with enormous disappointment.

In any case, our record at Anfield of late hasn’t been great and it did look for long periods in our league game earlier this season that we were largely second-best and whilst we managed to salvage a 1-1 draw on that occasion, Liverpool probably felt that they deserved the win.

Liverpool themselves have been a bit inconsistent of late. They put in two very good performances to overcome Man City over the two legs of the Carling Cup semi but those games sandwiched a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bolton and a mediocre 0-0 against Stoke.

I think we could win here today, even if all those listed above are out injured but it will require whoever steps in to hit the ground running and perform to their best.

Making any kind of prediction here is difficult but I think the game could see more goals than our league fixture and that is going to form the basis of my tentative bet.

The bet is 1 point Over 2.5 goals @ 2.00 with Bet365.

An Increasingly Familiar Sight

OK. First things first. We’re out of the Champions League, Arsenal are still in the Champions League. Financially, we’re operating against a backdrop of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt whilst Arsenal’s finances would appear to be the healthiest in Britain so this might seem like unnecessary and unwanted concern but I can’t help but wonder what is going on down there.

For all our battles down the years – particularly during the period between the late 90s and early 2000s – Arsenal are probably the side I have the most respect for.

Over the last twenty years or so, we have consistently been challenged in the league by Arsenal with appearances by teams such as Blackburn, Newcastle, Chelsea and now Manchester City.

However, what all those teams (except Arsenal) have in common is that their success was built to a greater or lesser degree on the bankrolling of a rich owner. Like ourselves, Arsenal have generated their own finances but they have probably done things even better than us in that respect – certainly with Arsene Wenger at the helm.

It is in this area that I have always had a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger as I will touch on in a moment.

When Arsene Wenger first arrived at Arsenal back in 1996, he took over a decent, albeit ageing, team (they had won the Premier League in 1991 and the FA Cup in 1993) and they probably had the best defensive line-up in the league with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Dixon, Bould etc. Add to that the superb Bergkamp assisting Wright in attack and the exciting Merson in midfield, he arrived with work to do but the basics of a side capable of challenging for the league.

Over the next few years, he used his knowledge of French football to bring in players such as Viera, Petit, Grimandi and his best to date – Henry – as he started to dismantle the old and build the new Arsenal of his own vision.

He did this with incredible success winning three Premier League titles and four FA Cups over the next seven years or so culminating in their last league success with the team that became known as “The Invincibles” having gone through the entire league campaign without losing a match.

I think it is fair to say that at this stage, most people expected Arsenal to go on winning for years to come but an FA Cup the following year has been their only silverware since the year of the Invincibles and whichever way Arsene Wenger dresses it up, that has to be viewed as failure.

As I said, one thing that I was always very impressed with Wenger about was his uncanny knack of buying players for a relative pittance, getting their best years out of them and then selling them on for a profit when they were just edging beyond the crest of their wave.

I would love to see some figures for Wenger’s net transfer balance in the sixteen years or so that he has been at Arsenal and I don’t believe that he has paid over £20million for any one player which is extraordinary for a team that has been a regular in the top four for as long as Arsenal have.

However, it is this that has perhaps caused Wenger to come in for the most criticism. The building of the Emirates stadium did, for a time, suck up a lot of money and so Wenger could be forgiven for not splashing the cash – he probably didn’t have it in abundance but I simply cannot believe that a club which has participated in fourteen consecutive Champions Leagues and has operated so prudently in the transfer market has no money for transfers new stadium or not.

I know that this has been a source of bewilderment amongst the press down the years and, probably, some frustration amongst the fans and it has largely been put down to Wenger’s stubborn attitude to do things “his” way i.e. youth, youth, youth.

But I’ve been watching Arsenal from the outside for several years now and it seems almost as though Wenger gets a bunch of kids, they don’t win anything, they (obviously) get older and are then replaced with a younger model. The word appears to be “potential” but potential is worthless unless realised and Wenger never seems to give the potential the best environment in which to thrive and become realised.

Youth is great and with the likes of Wilshere, Ramsay and this new lad Oxlade-Chamberlain (who was a joy to watch on Sunday, I have to admit) Arsenal have some riches to be envious of but Alan Hansen, for all the stick he has received since, was not entirely wrong when he said “You can’t win anything with kids”. For every Neville we had an Irwin/Pallister/Bruce, for every Scholes we had a Cantona/McClair, for every Beckham we had a Robson/Keane/Ince etc. The young replaced the old but there was always a period of overlap.

Of the current crop, Robin van Persie is probably the exception to the rule in that he did come along as a youngster, served his time backing up the likes of Henry et al and is now the main man there but at 28 years of age and at the height of his powers, he seems a prime candidate to either be sold by Wenger or seek a move elsewhere of his own accord – I would not be totally shocked if he is not at Arsenal next season.

At United, we are constantly bringing “kids” through the ranks into the first team and we also buy some in from abroad. It is probably fair to say that at least 95% of them don’t make it but those that do come through in a team full of players brimming, not just with playing experience but, more importantly, winning experience. As a result, we have continued to win things whilst Arsenal have spent much of the last six or seven seasons missing out and it is perhaps this which separates the exceptional manager that Wenger undoubtedly is from the truly great manager that is Sir Alex Ferguson.

That’s not to say that Fergie has always got it right and has finished above Wenger every season. In the 2004-05 season, we finished a distant third behind Chelsea and Arsenal but Fergie saw what was wrong and quickly went about putting things right and within a couple of years, we were back on top.

Looking at Arsenal now, they look no better or further on than they did five or six years ago. It has been a period of consistency for them but they have consistently been second, third or even fourth best.

If anything, it could be argued that they have actually been going backwards. Certainly the table today makes for grim reading for anyone Arsenal-related as they sit in fifth and five points behind four teams who are all playing better football and have better squads than them and Newcastle and Liverpool are now breathing down their necks.

The Champions League places are obviously still not totally out of reach for them but some bookies are offering as much as 5/2 on them to finish in the top four.

On the subject, Wenger was recently quoted as saying, “For me, not making the top four would be a disaster. Because I want to play with the best. We want to play in the Champions League and anything else would not be good enough.”

I have no doubt that it would be a disaster for Arsene but not necessarily for Arsenal FC. One way or another, a failure to finish in the top four (or worse) could be seen as a watershed moment and would surely have to make Arsene Wenger finally realise (or, at least, reluctantly acknowledge) that his policies aren’t working and persuade him to revise his principles which, whilst admirable, would have been proven to be flawed… again.

Of course, the other option, would be for the decision to be removed from Arsene Wenger’s hands altogether. At this stage, it is only his reputation that is keeping him in position and that reputation is becoming more and more tarnished with every passing season.

Emirates Stadium
Sun, Jan 22nd 2012 Kick Off: 16:00

Naturally, after the drubbing we gave Arsene Whinger’s boys at Old Trafford earlier in the season, this one has attracted all kinds of speculation as to what might happen this time at the Emirates and whilst nobody believes we will see a similar scoreline most do expect there to be several goals in the game again.

Personally, I have a feeling that it could go the opposite way with both teams playing very cagily.

After a disastrous start to the season followed by an incredible, Van Persie-inspired run of results, Arsenal are currently going through another little dip and the prospect of them not even qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in (fifteen?) years is looking a very real possibility.

However, it has been on their travels where Arsenal have suffered most; at the Emirates, they have been very strong and have only suffered the one defeat there this season (their very first home game of the season against Liverpool when Arsenal were struggling and Liverpool were full of optimism for the new season).

They have conceded just six goals at the Emirates in the league but, somewhat unusually for Arsenal, have scored just sixteen which from ten games is not the stuff Arsenal have been renowned for down the years and they do rely far too heavily on Van Persie to provide the goals.

As for us, well, the injury situation does appear to be resolving itself which means that Fergie will have a decent number of players to choose from and it is just as well because this match represents the start of a tough set of fixtures which we will do well to come through unscathed.

I actually have a feeling that Fergie won’t pick what we might by now consider to be his “strongest side” for this one. Park might get the nod somewhere in midfield (he seems to have a happy knack of scoring against Arsenal) but as for the rest, it’s anyone guess but I think there’ll be a couple of surprises.

I’ve been on a bit of a roll with the bets of late and I suppose that run has to end at some point and it could well be today because I’m going to go slightly against the general consensus for the bet here.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.1 with BetVictor (the new name for Victor Chandler).